1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to a new and improved electrical connector used for interconnecting conductors on printed circuit boards.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well knonw, various kinds of electrical connectors are developed for electrically interconnecting one conductor to another on printed circuit boards.
One such electrical connector comprises a plurality of terminal bodies each consisting of an elongate plate member. The terminal bodies are disposed parallel to each other at a predetermined pitch with both of their end portions inserted through and supported on right and left mold members. Both end portions of the terminal bodies may protrude from bottom surfaces of the mold members and the protruded end portions of the terminal bodies are configured as terminal portions which are adapted for insertion into the through-holes of one or more printed circuit boards. One row of the terminal portions supported on and reinforced by one of the mold members is inserted into one row of the through-holes of the printed circuit board and is soldered thereto. Then, in the similar manner, another row of the terminal portions, also reinforced by the other mold member, is inserted into another row of the through-holes of the printed circuit board and is soldered thereto. In this way, conductors on the printed circuit boards are electrically connected together by use of the electrical connector.
In such type of prior electrical connectors, the terminal bodies, and more specifically, portions of the terminal bodies which extend between a pair of right and left mold members are constructed to be flexible in nature and usually have linear configurations at the time before the terminal portions are inserted into the through-holes of the printed circuit boards. During insertion, a row of terminal portions is inserted into a row of through-holes of one printed circuit board and soldered thereto. Thereafter, another row of terminal portions is inserted into a row of through-holes of the other printed circuit board and soldered thereto. At this time, the terminal bodies are flexibly bent according to the relative positions on the printed circuit boards, thereby capable of making electrical connection between conductors on the printed circuit boards irrespective to said relative position of the circuit boards.
Although the electrical connectors according to the prior art are useful for electrically connecting the conductors on the printed circuit boards, there may still remain the need for improving them in view of the tedious operation of individually inserting the one and other rows of terminal portions into one and other rows of through-holes in the printed circuit boards. In other words,
(1) According to the design of prior art electrical connectors as stated above, a row of terminal portions of the terminal bodies is firstly inserted into a row of through-holes of one printed circuit board and soldered thereto, and then after the terminal bodies between the mold members are flexibly bent according to the position of other printed circuit board, another row of terminal portions of the terminal bodies is inserted into a row of through-holes of the other printed circuit board and soldered thereto. Therefore, two positioning operations one for each row of terminal portions with respect to their through-holes of the circuit boards must individually be performed, thereby increasing the number of steps for insertion and requiring a relatively longer period of time; PA1 (2) As stated above, before insertion of each row of the terminal portions into each row of the through-holes of the printed circuit boards, precise positioning of each row of the terminal portions relative to the through-holes must be done. However, because there are no guide means for positioning the prior connectors, reliable insertion of the terminal portions will not occur taking a longer period of time to insert the terminal portions into the through-holes of the circuit boards. This becomes more significant especially in the case where both the terminal portions and the through-holes have small diameters, the pitch of the terminal portions arranged side by side is small, and the distance between both rows of the terminal portions is short; and PA1 (3) Recently, such type of insertion operation tends to be automatically performed by a robot. Such an automatic insertion operation, however, becomes more and more complicated because one or the other insertion operation must be individually performed as stated above. PA1 at the time both rows of the terminal portions of the terminal bodies are not still inserted into the corresponding ones of the through-holes of the printed circuit board (9), a distance "S" between both rows of the terminal portions (6 and 7) of the terminal bodies is made greater than an interval "T" between both rows of the through-holes of the printed circuit board (9) due to restoring elasticity of the bent portions (12) of the terminal bodies which extend between the pair of right and left mold members (1 and 2); and PA1 at the time both rows of the terminal portions of the terminal bodies are to be inserted into the corresponding ones of the through-holes of the printed circuit board (9), a pair of chuck members (13) each positioned outside of the pair of right and left mold members (1 and 2) are actuated to move the pair of right and left mold members (1 and 2) towards each other until opposite walls "K" of the mold members (1 and 2) are abutted against walls (14A and 14B) of a stop member (14) positioned between the right and left mold members (1 and 2), upon which the distance "S" between both rows of the terminal portions of the terminal bodies (4A, 4B, 4C . . . ) matches with the interval "T" between both rows of the through-holes of the printed circuit board (9), thereby enabling simultaneous insertion of both rows of the terminal portions (6 and 7) of the terminal bodies (4A, 4B, 4C . . . ) into both rows of the through-holes of the printed circuit board (9).